Casanova Brown

Director: Sam Wood
Year Released: 1944
Rating: 1.5

None-too-bright Casanova (Gary Cooper) has his plans to marry Madge (Anita Louise) interrupted by news that his ex-girlfriend (Teresa Wright) gave birth to his child. The promotional poster for this indicated it's a "light-headed comedy," but only the first hyphenated word is correct: this is a clunky, silly affair, with our Noble Hero being consistently dimwitted, showing his inability to properly extinguish a cigarette, allowing for a full-body examination in a maternity wing without raising much objection, kidnapping his own baby daughter and holing himself up in the Hotel Windsor and proposing to a homely wet nurse. Cooper has never been particularly gifted at comedy, and this fails at emulating more effective screwball-type movies.